The Great Frognosticator

Imbolc arrives a little later than usual this year. February 4 will mark the arrival of pagan spring in the Northern hemisphere. As regular Typing Monkey readers know, the United States pays obtuse respect to Imbolc via Groundhog Day every Feb 2.

In the spirit of perfectly delightful ways to stave off late winter angst, the citizens of Snohomish, WA have come up with a bit of pre-emptive Imbolc-inspired fun in the form of GroundFrog Day. The 7th annual celebration happened on Jan 28 and we're quite put out that we missed the occasion, a mistake we do not intend to repeat next year.

The mascot of GroundFrog Day is a bullfrog named Snohomish Slew. He's a handsome devil and this year the grand amphibian claims warm weather is ahead. Our fingers are crossed Mr. Slew.

[Photo: Dean Rutz/Seattle Times]

Art Thiel Knows Snow in Seattle

The Typing Monkey offices in Seattle are still running, but only because we're able to walk from the cot in the basement to the 23rd floor and check our inbox.

In case the news in your area doesn't care -- and why should it? -- the Puget Sound region of the Pacific Northwest got snow and lots of it. Not Midwest snow, but enough. And then freezing rain. And then more snow. And the hills here make it virtually impossible to navigate by car or public transit.

Yet an L.A. Times reporter, Kim Murphy, ostensibly living in Seattle, since she's the paper's Northwest beat reporter, wrote a flip piece for her paper about Seattle being wimps in snow.

We wanted to write a terse yet elegant response. Then local sports writer Art Thiel beat us to it. The man elevates sports writing into art and can make even bored "eh, sports, whatever" types pay attention to baseball statistics. So we were delighted to read his response to Ms. Murphy's ill-informed and frankly, stupid piece fluff. Fluff which seems designed to do nothing more than increase page views.

Art Thiel says: Shut The Hell Up.